Disneyland Paris – a day out with 6 year olds

I didn’t know that Disneyland has been open for more than 20 years. I didn’t know the Eurotunnel had been open 20 years, it’s a cliche but it seems like yesterday …

Once the idea of taking the girls had taken root in our minds and husband was busy searching for campsites near Disneyland Paris on the ‘puter we were allowed to start getting excited. We decided not to tell the girls until the very last moment possible as we couldn’t bear 8 months of, ‘Are we going to Disneyland yet?’

We booked our tickets online and paid around £200 for them for entrance to 1 park for 1 day, we thought if we needed more days we could buy extra in France. In fact the Camping La Croix du Vieux Pont sold the tickets and at a glance they seemed slightly cheaper than what we had paid online.

We also used the campsite’s coach service for our day out and that cost an extra €60 for the four of us. If you choose to drive yourself a day parking costs around €15.

We arrived early, able to enter the park but not to start using the rides, the first hour is for hotel guests only. We had to wait before entering Fantasyland and at 10am sharp the tannoys announced the opening of the day in a host of languages and then everyone was allowed through.

We made a beeline for the Royal Invitation as I knew the girls would love to meet a ‘real’ princess. Whilst I queued up with all of the family tickets to hand dad took the girls off on a couple of the rides, teacups and Flying Dumbo. By the time I reached the front of the queue I was handed my ticket for 14.25.

We decided to book into Peter Pan with our Fast Passes and were given 11.55 time slots so off we went to start queuing. It was August and it was packed, we just had to queue up and get on with it.

As we walked from one ride to the next we came across various Disney characters, luckily I had already heard about this and was well prepared with our autograph books and pens. the girls were tickled pink to bump into Alice and the Mad Hatter.

We later queued up to meet Peter Pan and Wendy but got two slots away when we were told they had to go but Captain Cook and Mr Smee would be here to take their place. The tears we had!

We remained in our queue and waited patiently.

Unlucky the French dad who pushed his boys in front of my girls to meet Captain Cook when it was our turn, as I pulled (gently) his boys back saying ‘No no no, we have been waiting there is a queue’. Which he could see but chose to ignore. The French dad and mum were n’amused pas to have been caught out and told me to, ‘Be happy!’ making smile movements with their hands across their miserable faces.

I’ll be a lot happier if people like you don’t push in! Grrrrr, it was like a red rag to a bull.

Be prepared for pusher inners and don’t be trodden on or over. We had to tackle various pushy parents throughout the day all queue jumpers (I do love Great Britain and our orderly queues).

As time for our Royal Invitation approached we made our way over, you will not be allowed to go through the barriers until your time is reached, not even 5 minutes earlier and once you do get through you will join a queue, in our case a 75 minute queue.

Now, although dad stamped his feet at the thought of a 75 minute wait when he could be enjoying the rides in the park, the girls totally loved meeting Sleeping Beauty, talking to her and getting her autograph. It was worth it.

We visited the castle, we visited the shop and bought some souvenirs with the girls birthday money and as 5.30 approached dad took stand on the roundabout in front of the castle to get a good view for the daily parade.

This is an appointment it’s worth getting ready for and although we were facing the castle and had a good view, a better view would almost have certainly been to our right in front of the road where the parade comes from.

Once the parade was over the girls were getting tired so we head off to Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast in Discoveryland. This is a cool ride where you each have a laser which you shoot at markers as you travel around accumulating points. Dad was doing very well with his points, thousands ahead of me and so happy with himself but then unfortunately the ride kept breaking down and too my delight I discovered if I kept the gun shooting at the same marker over and over and over well, I unbelievably clocked up 132,000 points much to dad’s annoyance – I told him my tactics afterwards. He called me a cheat. :)

We finished our day with a short train ride to Main Street and a delicious hot dog in Casey’s Corner.

A fantastic day which we hope to repeat sometime when the girls are a bit older and out of high season too.

What a spectacular day out! I had to quickly scroll through pics, least my son see them. He’s been know to tippy toe to show me how tall and big he is in order that he visit Disney World :0) After reading this we will certainly wait untill our kids are older perhaps age 6 or 7.

LOVE Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast. I went on that one twice. And I know what you mean about the queues in DLP – it’s quite shocking how adults will push past little kids to get to see Goofy or whatever.

We are going to Disneyland in Florida for Halloween this year. Can’t wait – been looking forward to it all year.

Wow, you are a braver woman than me. I’ve managed to avoid, I think, a trip to Disneyland as my 2 are now 8 (tomboy anti-princess) and 10 (geeky boy) and have never been that keen on the idea. Maybe they were put off by the way I shuddered every time an advert came on! ;)
I think we’ll just stick with Legoland, soon to be followed by Alton Towers…..Joy!